WORK is under way on a new fence at the side of a road where four people died in a horrific car crash 15 months ago.

Blaenau Gwent council is currently putting up the fence on the B4471 between Swffryd and Llanhilleth.

In October 2004, four men were killed when their car left the road and plunged into the disused quarry below.

Jack Magee, 47, from Abertillery, and his three passengers, Shane Powell, 29, from Pontypool, Alex Williams, 21, and Karl Devlin, who was 19, both from Newport, all died.

A council spokeswoman said: "Work is in the final stages of replacing approximately 300 metres of fencing with 1.2-metre-high steel railings, and reconstructing the adjacent footway along the B4471 Swffryd Road, in line with planned maintenance.

"It is anticipated that the work will be completed at the beginning of the week commencing January 16.

"The work has cost approximately £49,000." Llanhilleth councillor Dennis Hughes stressed yesterday that the new railings are not a crash barrier, but would help the safety of pedestrians in the area.

Last year Gwent coroner David Bowen recorded a verdict of misadventure on the four men who died.

The inquest heard Mr Magee lost control of his BMW, which mounted the pavement and hit and uprooted several concrete posts. After knocking down around 16 metres of the fence, the car rolled down the embankment and went through a fence at the top of the quarry before sliding over the edge of a 25-metre vertical drop and landing on its roof.

Mr Bowen said reports showed that before his death Mr Magee, a paraplegic who was driving a specially adapted vehicle, had ingested opiates and taken cannabis.

Mr Bowen said he was satisfied the loss of control of the car was a result of a deliberate action by Mr Magee but the consequences of that action were not intended by him.